Tigers fail to deliver after early promise

GM Telford Tigers’ last home game of the year reflected their whole season.

They opened well and looked strong until halfway through, until a chronic shortage of players created defensive weaknesses, preventing them from delivering on their early promise.

In the match, it meant a 9-8 overtime loss against Wightlink Raiders.

In the English Premier League, it also meant missing out on a place in the play-offs, despite scoring more points and securing more wins than last season.

Going into the weekend, coach Claude Dumas had pledged the Shropshire lads would approach each game with the same determination as they had at the start of the season, and the team certainly worked hard in both games over the weekend.

But in both cases, they ran out of steam, with Bracknell Bees finishing 9-2 winners on Saturday.

Tigers opened the scoring in their home fixture on Sunday, with Marek Hornak finishing off a string of great passes to fire the puck home at 8:04.

Dumas added a powerplay goal less than two minutes later and, even though Wightlink pulled one back, Telford still looked dominant with James Knight making it 3-1 at 15:06.

Raiders scored on the powerplay within the first minute of the middle session, but Andrew McKinney restored the lead at 22:36 with his first goal in Tigers’ colours, assisted by Daniel Mackriel and Scott Williams.

Stuart Bates scored a stunning shorthanded goal at 27:36 and Tom Carlon made it 6-2 with a delayed penalty goal at the midway point.

With the game running away from them, Wightlink called a time-out and the visitors began to build their fightback.

A goal within minutes and a five-on-three powerplay strike allowed Raiders to narrow the deficit by the end of the period.

The turnaround continued with Wightlink equalising within five minutes of the final period.

Hornak rocketed the puck in at 47:16 to put Tigers back in the lead, and Dumas made it 8-6, but the tiring defence let in a soft goal from the slot and Raiders pulled goalie Brabon to push an extra man goal in the final minute, forcing the game into overtime.

After an edgy 2:36 Wightlink took the victory, giving Tigers just a point for their efforts.

Saturday saw Tigers on the road to Bracknell.

Viable

Despite news this week that the Bees team management were pulling out at the end of the year because their team is not financially viable, Telford suffered another stinging defeat from their squad.

Again, Tigers put up an early fight, matching the Bees 1-1 in the first period, with a powerplay goal from captain Daniel Mackriel at 9:56.

However, six goals against in the middle session left Tigers reeling and, although they battled on to the end, their sole strike from Tom Carlon was little consolation as Bracknell added a further two in the third period.

Dumas summed up, saying: “Once again we played good for half a game, but a bad five minutes gave them four goals and put us out of it.

“Somehow we just can’t play against their style. They are the only team we haven’t been able to beat this season, and we really wanted to get one win from them. But we didn’t have our best second half of a game.”

Tigers finish off their season with a trip to English Premier League champions Peterborough Phantoms next Sunday.

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